
Junyee before his works made of seeds and soot in his recent exhibit at Altro Mondo

Junyee’s artwork made of soot and computer parts on marine plywood
Junyee himself opened the door to the gallery to let us in. It was shortly after lunch on Wednesday, January 15, at Altro Mondo Gallery on Chino Roces Avenue, Makati, where Junyee was winding down his latest one-man exhibit, only his fifth solo in his entire 60-year career. We barely made it to his invitation to see the works one last time before they were brought down from the wall.
Junyee’s of MAN and NATURE exhibit, that closed that weekend, must have been, in our mind at least, one of the most significant exhibits of 2024 that Metro Manila missed. It was as if it happened while you were sleeping. It didn’t raise the buzz (in mainstream media, new media, social media) that it deserved—the exhibit bore talk points and visual power that could have generated tight engagement with artists, art consumers, and connoisseurs, indeed the art ecosystem itself, and the public at large.

Soot painstakingly formed based on his abortion theme on metal board, based on Junyee’s ‘Abortion’ series

Junyee’s ‘Abortion’ drawing
But then, it must have been that easy to overlook the show, just like Junyee the man himself. For Junyee is self-effacing and humble, his non-“diva” simplicity belying the fact that he has contributed an inextricable dimension to Philippine art—as the father of Philippine installation art, and with his iconoclast works through the decades. Add to that the fact that he is a major force in Asian art, this scion of an Agusan del Norte business family who defied his elders’ wish to become a professional, and instead became a vagabond artist whose independence from his family was forged in a handyman stint in a funeral parlor.
But then, we’re repeating an oft-repeated tale. Junyee—short for Luis E. Yee Jr.—has been living in Los Baños, Laguna; his has been a life lived with nature, not only close to it. That’s what one should know as one views his latest exhibit.
And, he has earned his spot in Philippine and Asian art—by not manifesting or yielding to outside influence. In that way has his art become indefinable, and ironically, how he “helped redefine art worldwide,” wrote Riel Jaramillo Hilario.

Junyee’s soot on metal board, over a layer of color paint
Junyee’s latest exhibit at Altro Mondo consisted not of sculpture installations, but of framed masterpieces using soot, wood, seeds, and in one work, computer components. The discards of technology marry the discards of nature to prove his point of connectivity in the universe. For indeed, long before Climate Change, Save the Environment, Sustainability became the rallying cry of the millennial and the GenZ generations, Junyee had already been speaking out that vision in his works, particularly his installations which had won acclaim here and abroad.

Junyee’s ‘Coming Out’ (soot on metal sheet, 2023)

‘Rainbow Squared’ (soot and paint on metal sheet, 2023)
Walking me through the exhibit, Junyee described how he spent intermittent hours, lying face upward and blasting soot (using kerosene) at the aluminum sheet or in one work, at ply board, scraping texture and images out of it to concretize his concept, sometimes “peeling” off a layer to reveal colors he has painted ahead on the board. He had done “soot” works before (Soots You series)—the use of such unconventional (to put it mildly) medium indicating yet again how the artist could pursue only the unbeaten path. Now this maverick artist tells us this could be the last time he’s using this uncustomary medium because—surprise!—the process is not really good for one’s health.
An installation titled Pinanggalingan (Where We Came From) welcomes the viewer to the Altro Mondo exhibit hall. It is the sole installation in the exhibit, apart from a re-creation of Junyee’s famous work, Wood Things (1982, Paris Biennale), installed in the back room of the exhibit area. In Pinanggalingan, Junyee reiterates yet again man’s ties to nature—a relationship man has been violating with greater frequency. He uses seeds, coconut and other natural materials he picked up around his place in Los Baños. As I listen to him describe the installation, this listener feels the artist’s sense of reverence of nature and of the earth he’s grown old in, and his ties to it.
Junyee’s show was the second installment of Altro Mondo’s ICONS series.
The good news is—Junyee and the country’s foremost artists who defined an era will present a group exhibit titled Nucleus at Leon Gallery in Makati, to open on February 6 and to run until February 18. With him are Gig de Pio, Gus Albor, Nestor Vinluan, and Roy Veneracion.
Junyee is also holding another solo show at the 2025 Art Fair on February 20.—Thelma Sioson San Juan
of MAN and NATURE
In its printed documentation of Junyee’s latest exhibit, Altro Mondo explains the concept and vision behind of MAN and Nature. Excerpt:
“His use of reclaimed or locally sourced wood emphasizes sustainability and draws attention to the critical issues of deforestation and industrialization….
“Some of Junyee’s artworks incorporate unconventional materials like microchips, computer parts, seeds, and nuts, bridging the gap between nature and technology. This integration highlights the dualities of progress and preservation, demonstrating how even industrial remnants can coexist with organic elements to create something meaningful. These combinations reflect the exhibition’s deeper theme of interconnectedness, illustrating the complex relationships between human innovation and the natural world.
Soot and other organic elements are incorporated to underscore the interplay between creation and destruction
“The exhibition offers a contemplative journey, guiding visitors through a spectrum of works that celebrate wood’s versatility as an artistic medium. Each piece symbolizes growth, life, and change, presenting wood not merely as a material but as a living testament to the natural world’s cycles. Soot and other organic elements are incorporated to underscore the interplay between creation and destruction—a reminder of nature’s delicate balance and the consequences of human actions.
Junyee’s soot works
“At the heart of of MAN and NATURE lies a compelling call to action: to honor, protect, and nurture the environment.”
Also from the Altro Mondo brochure, we are running here two significant stories on Junyee, written by two important artists themselves: the late Riel Jaramillo Hilario, in 2021, and the late Raymundo Albano, in 1981.
We’re also running excerpts from Altro Mondo’s conversations with Junyee:
The creative legacy of Junyee
By Riel Jaramillo Hilario (†), 2021
Based in the university town of Los Baños, Laguna, for most of his active creative life, Luis Yee, Jr., also known as Junyee to the Philippine art world, has a number of titles to his name: Father of Installation Art, Father of Indigenous Art, Pioneer in Organic Art, Soothsayer, or Tatay to his followers. While respected as a senior artist, his importance to the development of contemporary art in the archipelago—and in the Asian region—has been largely occluded by the vicissitudes of the very art world that he himself changed. We hope to edify his creative and transformative practice in this collective homage to his genius and wish that we could give him his proper place among the national treasures of the land.
Junyee was a pioneer of the art of installation in the 1970s and ‘80s. While his contemporaries were also into this form as an exercise of conceptual art, mostly in indoor settings and altar-like performance spaces, the artist chose to work mostly with open environments, in site-specific spaces, and in a natural relationship with nature. This keenness to work with organic elements—upcycled refuse of the plant world, or the opportunities presented by the environment—set Junyee apart from the rest. The approach was radical at a time when environmental concerns and problems were not yet part of daily discourse. No one paid attention to the ravages of global warming 40 years ago. And yet Junyee, on his own, pursued this direction.
Even as others were embroiled in the Social Realist rebellion or the Imelda-sponsored groups that painted pretty barong-barongs, Junyee fought his own subversive track: harmony with the planet, the radicalism of environmental work. But Junyee was not inured from current events, as his work also reflected the issues of his day, like the agricultural reform unrest of the post-Marcos Era, among others. He was, like a natural man that he is, attuned at all times.
In the 1990s, Junyee’s influence reached out to the rest of Asia, thanks to the developing discourse of Asian modernism of the Indonesian critic Jim Supangkat in dialogue with Apinan Poshyananda of Thailand, Alice Guillermo of the Philippines, among others. The discursive highways that linked art communities saw the impact environmental art has among other Asian countries, and Junyee was among those who collaborated, created pieces and cross-pollinated between practitioners of Southeast Asia. His approach was echoed by fellow Filipinos—Roberto Villanueva, Santiago Bose, and Rene Aquitania. Elsewhere, there was Dadang Christian to Heri Dono, Sopheap Pich, among others. Junyee was so respected by the critics of the region that he was featured on the inaugural issue of the journal Art in Asia and the Pacific.
Further testimony to the global reach of his visual language was his winning design and monument for Filipino-Israeli relations. The late ‘90s to the early 2000s were the peak of a discourse on an emergent renaissance of sorts, and a shift of attention, market-wise, towards Asia and the Pacific seemed eminent. Junyee was among those who redefined art worldwide. He, along with his peers, were ready to take on the hegemony of the Western Art World.
In 2004, a tsunami hit Thailand, Indonesia, and other countries in that area. Years later an economic crash following the devaluation of the Thai Baht devastated cultural programs regionwide. Countries who were in communion before had withdrawn from ambitious cultural programs to set their own internal economics first. Asian Modernism disappeared slowly in the wake and rise of the Asian Contemporary Art market, with all its art fairs and auctions.
In the Philippines, the comeback of easel painting with the popularity of the Salingpusa painters and their peers put an abrupt pause on multimedia, mixed media, and indigenous art. The ready-to-hang and easy-to-digest wall pieces had bested the avant-garde works of artists using non-traditional media, like the Hulo group and Pintanueve. Art competitions—once open to mixed media works—became conservative purveyors of easel painting. Their influence on the art market remains to this day.
The consistency and conviction of his creative praxis is a lesson on artistic dignity and erudition
Junyee, thanks to his isolation and non-participation in the trends of his day, remained unfazed. He made paintings too, from kerosene soot in a series called Soots You, and carved logs of santol wood for his Pintado series of sculptures in defiance of—or independence from—the demands of the art scene. The artist is a shining example of creative sovereignty. He rejected the 13 Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines because of his personal politics and remained steadfast in his chosen materials and the language of indigenous art for decades, even today. The consistency and conviction of his creative praxis is a lesson on artistic dignity and erudition.
Junyee is the counterpoint to the group of pandering painters who fill up their clients’ homes and coffers with portraits, investable assets, and whimsical fantasies of Western Art. In summary, he serves as the rallying point for Filipino artists who remain true to their roots and their visual language. Junyee is a true Filipino artist, worthy successor to Juan Luna. And with his example of subversion, integrity and love for his home, lan,d and planet, we seek refuge and inspiration.
Junyee is the counterpoint to the group of pandering painters who fill up their clients’ homes with portraits, investable assets, and whimsical fantasies of Western Art
Junyee’s Woodland Fantasy
By Raymundo Albano (†), 1981
Reprinted from Philippine Art Supplement 2, no. 3 (May/June 1981)
Children, romantics, and cynics of contemporary art will find Junyee’s exhibition at the CCP Small Gallery a delight. For its environmental intimacy, sense of being in a natural world (somewhat akin to imagination and fancy), one relates with the works on different experiential levels. For one may consider it a child’s garden, an adult’s thickets, or in a state of nirvana, a part of heaven.
Wood Things, as it is called, refers to the objects made of dry banana stalk and kapok pods which were assembled together to look like an abstraction of a pet animal. The artist is concerned with a woodsman’s perception of his environment, especially in that aspect which leads him to see things well in order, everything belonging to each other, balancing forces.
The installation of the exhibit required the walls to be the base or ground of the “pets,” which look like giant insects moving in rows. On the floor were acacia fruits, again, like “pets,” dark objects on the whitish floor. There were parts of the gallery that were lit in either straw, blue, or red.
The ambiguity of the situation thickens as one stays beyond the “magic moment” of the exhibit, that is, when one realizes the workings of the artist’s set-up. First, the “pets” are not made to look like particular bugs, although the idea of a botanical-zoological paradox is suggested (plants made to look like animals). It also follows that the acacia pods on the floor may “squirm” like worms. Another thing is that the lighting enables the objects to be seen as they are, or as theatricalized under red or blue lights, creating alternates of illusion and reality.
The woodland environment, which Junyee’s exhibit was premised on, cleverly covers up the complex strategies he has set upon the audience and upon himself. Because of the inventive use of natural materials, suggestive at that, we are deceived into imagining an ideal human experience that we forget all our concepts of art and art materials. We see things as suggested, and as we see them as they are, and we continue to wonder, we still do not equate our situation to one that belongs in an art gallery. But this is precisely the concept of environment the artist has created: a total perception of one pure situation.
It can be argued, however, that Junyee’s visual proposition borders on entertainment or on an excess of decorative elements, His reference to the works as “pets” connotes intimacy and cuteness, which is again a point for decorativeness. But all these are regional touches, and may be contrary to urban taste—another item he touches on.
Junyee has worked on art concepts for his environment in Los Baños, Laguna. There, on top of the mountain, he works on materials he finds in his way (not living ones), and does not get limited by the lack of ideal materials for his work. The gumption to do objects for perception may not be completely instinctive to the artist whose biodata includes several major sculpture awards, but it seems that his activities revolve around ritual and lifestyle subjects which should be treated in longer articles. Within this context, however, the artist’s work in the city is a big sweeping gesture of coming down from the mountain to the display hall. And this shows: the works have that brought-in quality, strange, obtrusive, alien. Indeed a charming presence.
Where one expects to find a picture on the wall, Junyee provides the opposite: unexpected rules and unexpected materials
The implications of Junyee’s art are enough to question one’s attitudes to art and experience. Like all of CCP’s developmental art projects, there is a great risk involved, and the proposition of the artist here is well taken. One can say it was a light encounter, even though it was of a different kind. Where one expects to find a picture on the wall—an object created on expected rules and materials—Junyee provides the opposite: unexpected rules and unexpected materials.
The challenge of art is how to redefine itself for its time, and once again in Junyee’s exhibition, we are faced with questions only future artistic validations will be able to answer. What is permanently in art: the object? What is sculpture? Or can sculpture borrow from theater, landscape architecture and science?
It appears that Junyee’s art is loaded with dimensions that allow for intellectual exercises. This is an academic way of justifying some woodland fantasy that works.
In conversation with Junyee
Reprinted from ICONS brochure on ‘of MAN and NATURE’ (2024) ( English translations by thediarist.ph)
Artist Junyee discusses his ICONS exhibition with Altro Mondo’s Juliana Sales.
Excerpts:
You worked closely with different renowned artists during your youth and became an apprentice of National Artist Napoleon Abueva. How did that help you in your formative years as an artist? Were you concerned that the public might not take you seriously or consider you as the more amateurish version of these masters?
Maraming tao, ang akala nila (Many people think) I was influenced by National Artist Napoleon Abueva. I was like a son to him, I was adopted by him and I lived with him for three years. May mga apprentice doon noong dumating ako, iyong iba matatanda na rin. Lahat naman sila na-influence niya sa trabaho nila, pero sa lahat ng apprentices niya, ako lang ang ‘di niya naimpluwensyahan hanggang ngayon. Ibang iba ang trabaho ko sa trabaho niya. Hindi mo mate-trace na “Uy! Influence ito ni Abueva.” (There were other apprentices there, some older than I, all influenced by him in their art. Of all, I was the only one whose works were not influenced by him, to this day. My works so different from his. You could not trace the influence of Abueva.) I am proud to say that I am orig.
Maraming tao ang akala nila I was influenced by National Artist Napoleon Abueva. I was like a son to him
However, although hindi na-influence ni Sir Billy ang trabaho ko, na-influence naman ako with how he thinks. So siguro ang masasabi ko, iyong kakulitan ko ngayon sa paggawa ng trabaho ay partly influenced by Sir Billy. Kasi si Sir Billy, makulit iyon e, he’s the kind na aktibo yung mind. Hindi siya nakuntento sa mga napag-aralan niya o mga pinagdaanan ng ibang artists. (But, even if Sir Billy didn’t influence my work, his persistence, his tenacity, his active mind influenced me. His was an active mind, never content with learning or with what other artists had gone through.) That’s very important because it shows that I was not influenced by him through his work, but with how he thinks.
Can you say that your experiences in moving from Agusan to Manila influenced how you make art?
It’s normal na ang isang artist na seryoso sa kanyang trabaho ay ang makapag-develop ng kaniyang style (an artist serious about his work must be serious about developing his style). That is the hardest part. I am proud to say that if you study art history from Juan Luna down to me, ako lang ang hindi na-influence ng any foreign artist or any Filipino artist (I was the only one not influenced by any foreign or Filipino artist). Na-influence sila sa trends ng panahon (They were influenced by trends), but me, if you examine my work, from the very start, wala kayong makikitang (you won’t see) any form of influence. It’s me. It shows that I’m doing things on my own.
I am happy where I am now, and what I’ve accomplished. Kahit noong umalis ako sa Mindanao (Even after I left Mindanao), my mother wanted me to be a doctor, if not a priest, and my dad wanted me to study in Silliman. My experiences did not influence my work, but I did learn how to survive. I survived because I kept on winning (in art competitions). I guess you can say that my struggles honed my art. I worked as a janitor, clerk, I even worked at a funeral parlor, and my experiences in survival really honed who I am now and the art I make today. I have to survive if I want to be an artist.
My mother wanted me to be a doctor…. my dad wanted me to study in Silliman. My experiences did not influence my work, but I did learn how to survive
What is your philosophy and process in making art?
When I enrolled at the UP College of Fine Arts, Western art talaga ang tinuturo (is what they teach). Bakit pa ako mag-aaral kung ang pag- aaralan ko ang mga trabaho ng mga foreigners (What do I need to study if it’s all art done by foreigners)? I love Western art, but it’s not mine. Yung gawa ko, nagprotesta ako na bakit kailangan ma-confine tayo sa Western standards kung mayaman naman ang kultura natin (My work is in protest—why do we have to be confined to Western standards, when our culture is rich). I want to be a Filipino. Kaya noong tinanong ako, sabi ko (That’s why when they ask me, I say), I want to use our culture, hindi yung kultura ng mga puti (not the culture of the white race).
You are recognized as the Father of Philippine Installation Art, after pioneering the use of installation art in the Philippines. What inspired you to bring installation art here as your primary medium?
I was not satisfied to conform only to the Western and academic standards of art, kaya naman nagbubutinting ako lalo na noong ‘60s-‘70s na height of activism (that’s why I loved to tinker especially in the ‘60s, ‘70s at the height of activism) . Because I grew up loving nature, it became innate in me. Lumabas iyon sa akin dahil maraming pwedeng gawin from materials (This drive surfaced because there’s so much material) you can find in nature. At wala kasi akong pera, kaya ginagamit ko ay (And I didn’t have money, so I use) things from nature kasi walang bayad iyon (it’s free)…. Hindi naman ako painting major, sculpture major ako (I was not a Painting or Sculpture major). Kaya nabuo iyon (It was formed) out of my personal familiarity with nature, I just make things from anything I can find useful….
of Man and Nature will be your fifth solo exhibition in your entire career. What should we expect from you and from the show?
I’ve only had four solo shows in the last 60 years. All of them are different from each other. My practice is, if I have a show, I’ll present something new. I always present something, “Uy! Bago itong gawa ni Junyee!” at sinisigurado kong pulido na siya (This is new from Junyee, and I make sure it is highly polished). From presenting installation works, to soot paintings not a lot of people know I do, it’s all different, different but not abrupt.